utility-slideshow-creator

Slideshow Creator

Generate professional presentations (.pptx and .pdf) from a JSON deck specification. Zero design decisions at generation time - Claude selects slide types and fills content slots; all visual properties are pre-decided by the theme.

When to Use

• Creating slide decks for stakeholder updates, product reviews, team presentations
• Generating professional .pptx files from content briefs
• Producing consistent presentations without manual formatting
• Exporting presentations to PDF for sharing or archiving

When NOT to Use

• Creating complex data visualizations (use dedicated charting tools)
• Building interactive web presentations (this produces .pptx, not HTML)
• Editing existing PowerPoint files (this creates new decks from scratch)

How It Works

Two-phase architecture:

1. Spec phase (Claude) - Read the content brief, select slide types using decision logic, write a JSON deck specification. Content slots have character limits calibrated to prevent overflow. This is the only phase that costs tokens.
2. Generation phase (Local script) - Run node scripts/generate-deck.js deck-spec.json to produce .pptx. Optionally run node scripts/export-pdf.mjs deck-spec.json for PDF. Deterministic rendering, zero token cost.

Both outputs come from the same JSON spec, so .pptx and .pdf always match.

18 Slide Types

Full slot definitions and character limits: references/slide-types.md

Decision Logic (Quick Reference)

Full decision logic with variant strategy: references/decision-logic.md

JSON Deck Spec Format

{
  "title": "Q3 Product Update",
  "author": "Product Team",
  "footerText": "Internal . Q3 Review",
  "slides": [
    { "type": "title_dark", "title": "Q3 Product Update", "subtitle": "October 2026" },
    { "type": "stat", "stat": "94%", "label": "Customer satisfaction score", "accentColor": "secondary" },
    { "type": "bullets", "title": "What Shipped", "bullets": ["Feature A", "Feature B", "Feature C"] },
    { "type": "closing" }
  ]
}

Colors accept theme token names ("accent", "secondary", "tertiary", "warm") or 6-character hex strings ("2563EB").

Full schema and workflow: references/TEMPLATE.md and references/platform-rules.md

Instructions

1. Read the content brief - Understand topic, audience, length, specific requirements
2. Plan the deck - Select slide types using the decision logic table. Assign dark/light variants for visual rhythm (alternate to avoid monotony).
3. Write the JSON deck specification - Fill content slots, respecting character limits from references/slide-types.md
4. Run the generation script - node scripts/generate-deck.js deck-spec.json
5. Optionally export PDF - node scripts/export-pdf.mjs deck-spec.json output.pdf
6. Report the output - Tell the user where the file(s) are

Output Contract

• Planning artifact: JSON deck specification (the file Claude writes)
• Final output: .pptx file (+ optional .pdf), generated locally from the spec
• Quality gate: All items in the quality checklist pass

Quality Checklist

• Every slide has a valid type key (one of the 18 defined types)
• All content slots respect character limits from references/slide-types.md
• Dark/light variants alternate for visual rhythm (no 3+ consecutive same-variant slides)
• Deck has a title slide (first) and a closing slide (last)
• Section dividers separate distinct topics in decks > 6 slides
• Speaker notes included for key slides (stats, highlights, transitions)
• JSON is valid (no trailing commas, proper quoting, correct nesting)
• Color values are valid theme tokens or 6-character hex strings (no # prefix)

References